


Well Played Cadera

by Keirra



Series: Swtor Prompts and Shorts [15]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst, F/M, Inspired by a game glitch, Pre-Relationship, With a bit of sweet?, that was too funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 17:18:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15077984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keirra/pseuds/Keirra
Summary: After yet another argument about Noara's refusal to wear armor, Torian tries a new strategy.





	Well Played Cadera

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cinlat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinlat/gifts).



Noara was so anxious she had to physically restrain herself from pacing across the hanger floor. There were far too many people around for her to feel comfortable with a blatant show of emotion, but she was so jittery she almost didn’t care. Instead she folded her arms around her chest, one hand gripping her bicep tightly and the other pressed against her exposed collarbone to try and steady her breathing. All it managed was making her more aware of her racing heartbeat.

It wasn’t the upcoming mission that had her so out of sorts, it was just a recruitment request Hylo was sending her to Nar Shaddaa for. It was more the company she would be keeping, and the several days they would be alone together in her ship, that was making her so nervous.

Torian had never made her feel like this before, but then before last night they had never argued properly before.

He was just so insistent that she start wearing armor, even saying he would help her get outfitted, but she refused him. Again. Apparently, it had been the last straw for both of them, judging by the heated words they had exchanged and the furious look he had shot her before leaving her quarters.

She almost wouldn’t be surprised if he was a no show, after the way she had behaved.

Noara knew she was being stubborn, but it was more than that. She dreaded the thought of looking like a solider. She wasn’t a solider. She didn’t want to be one. She was trained to value and protect peace – if she had her way she would be a pacifist – but she had been thrown feet first into war from almost the moment she left Naboo.

So many things she once thought of as unwavering parts of herself had been compromised in the years since then. Her code, her morals, her allegiances, - but not this. Despite everything she never looked like the solider the galaxy was forcing her to be.

And now in her stubbornness and refusal to be open about her fears she may have lost the closest friend she has.

Counting the racing beat of her heart against her hand, she closed her eyes and tried a deep breathing exercise to sooth her nerves.  _If he would just show up_ , she thought,  _I would know if he is mad at me or not_.

She stood like that for a few minutes before the familiar noise in the hanger changed, shifting from the clanking of tools and murmur of conversation to gasps and a few surprised laughs.

Opening her eyes, she turned to see what the commotion was and gasped. She closed her eyes and opened them again, just to be sure she was seeing correctly but nothing changed.

Torian was walking toward her, everything about his posture, stride, the way his arms were held at his side, suggesting nothing was outside of the ordinary. His rifle and the bag he packed necessities in for trips were slung casually over his shoulder.

His bare shoulder.

Instead of his heavy dark armor, something she had  _rarely_  seen in out of, he was naked from the waist up.

She knew she was gaping at him, but she couldn’t stop herself until he was standing right in front of her. She tried to school her face into something more mature as he nodded briskly at her.

“Ready?” He asked, sounding far more causal than he had any right to be.

She had to clear her throat before she could manage to speak. “I am,” she said frowning at him, “but I don’t think you are.”

He looked down at himself, patting his bag and the strap his rife was hanging from, “no I have everything.”

Noara sighed and shook her head, “Torian where is your armor?”

“I decided to follow your example, who needs armor right?” He asked with a tight smile before brushing past her and heading for the bridge that lead to where the Defender was parked.

She watched him move away from her in disbelief, wondering if maybe one of them had suffered a head injury. Maybe she was laid up in the infirmary and this was just a crazy coma dream?

He was half way across the bridge before she decided that, no, she was awake, and he seemed serious about going on a mission practically naked. She ran to catch up with him just as he was reaching the end of the bridge.

She started talking as soon as she was within easy hearing distance of him. “Are you serious? You are basically naked Torian. You can’t go out in the field like that?”

He didn’t respond, or even look at her, as he crossed the plateau and boarded the ship. She followed him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs when she noticed him standing at the top and looking down at her. His bad and rifle were on the ground near his feet.

“I don’t understand your problem,” he said finally, a hint of annoyance in his voice, “I’m wearing about as much as you are.”

Oh stars, she thought, he was still on about the damn armor. In a rare show of temper, she stomped up the stairs to stand in front of him. “That is not the point, and you know it,” she snarled, “you have armor. You like your armor. You  _always_  wear your armor. Now where is it?”

“In my room.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him her best serious commander glare, as Koth was fond of calling it. “Torian we are not leaving until you have your armor.”

He mirrored her stance, arms folded across his bare chest. “And why is that?”

She sputtered, “because… because it keeps you safe! I can’t believe I’m the one having to say this!”

He smiled, some of the tension in his shoulders melting away like it was never there. “Neither can I, do you hear it?”

She frowned. “Hear what?”

“How hypocritical you sound.”

“Excuse me?”

He moved his arms to rest them on his hips. “Here you are, lecturing me and stomping your feet, throwing a tantrum over the idea of me not wearing my armor yet you refuse to even  _entertain_  the idea of getting some of your own.”

“That is hardly the same thing,” she spat, “and I am not throwing a tantrum.”

He gave her a look that clearly said he did not agree.

“It’s just…” she paused, grasping for the words and pressing her hand over her collarbone to steady her pounding heart again. “You’re Mandalorian. Armor is part of your culture, your identity, not mine.”

“There are Jedi who wear armor.”

“And I’m not one of them!” She was breathing hard as she stared up at him, before she asked helplessly “why are you doing this Torian?”

He sighed heavily and dropped his arms down to his sides. “I just don’t understand Noara. Why don’t you care about your own safety?”

Her anger deflated under the weight of his stare and she had to drop her eyes to the floor to assuage the sudden guilt she felt for the way she was behaving. “It’s not that, of course I care. It’s not like I want to get hurt.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t want to be a solider,” she whispered, voicing her fear for the first time.

He stepped closer to her, using one of his hands to lift her chin to look at him, “what?”

Her eyes were burning with tears, a reaction to the dizzying shift of her emotions from anxiety to anger to shame. She didn’t even try to wipe them away when they started to fall down her cheeks.

“I don’t want to be a solider,” she repeated miserably. “if I got a kit from the Quartermaster, no matter how they customized it and dolled it up, I’d look like soldier. That’s not me Torian. I’m sorry, I know you are just trying to look out for me and I appreciate that more than you know but… I can’t.”

“Oh Noara,” he sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders and leaning down just enough to be at her eye level. “I am not talking about outfitting you like a trooper or commando or something like that. It wouldn’t be a full kit, not if you don’t want it to be. Just a few pieces to protect your most vulnerable spots, like your chest and stomach.”

Meeting his eyes full on, she can see how much this means to him, how much he cares about keeping her safe. He wasn’t really asking for that much. The guilt she felt before was nothing compared to how she felt now, she was sure if he wasn’t holding her shoulders she would have crumpled to the floor under the weight of it.

Wiping the moisture off her face, more for something to delay her response while she tried to regain some semblance of composure than being bothered by her tears, she was struck by how weird this was. She’d acted on more strong emotions in the last ten minutes than in the last few years of her life and instead of sneering at her, or judging her as weak for them, he was just watching her carefully as if he wasn’t sure how she was going to react next.

Finally, she felt able to speak.

“Only a few pieces?”

He smiled, the concern on his face gone in place of his relief that she wasn’t arguing anymore.

“Yeah, just a few and when you try them if you don’t like it we can keep looking until we find something you are comfortable with. All I am asking is that you keep an open mind.”

She let out a shaky breath, and smiled at him, “okay. We can try, and I’ll keep an open mind about it.”

Torian pulled her into a tight hug, his arms around her and giving a comforting squeeze. She froze against him, unsure if she was uncomfortable with the lack of clothing between them, or if she was just surprised by the feel of his bare skin pressed against the skin her top left bare. She had just realized enough to appreciate how soft his skin was, and how good he smelled, before he pulled away.

“Now that we have that settled,” he said as he started to walk toward the cockpit, “we should get going.”

“Wait! What about your armor? You can’t go without it.”

He stopped and laughed, looking at her over his bare shoulder. “I told you, it’s in my room here on the ship. In case you called my bluff.”

Noara was still gaping at him when he disappeared into the cockpit, trying to figure out how she had completely fallen for his ruse. Finally, she smiled and shook her head.

“Well played, Cadera.”


End file.
